I’ve never been to Seafood Barge in Southold, NY, but they took part in the first annual Long Island Restaurant Week last week. LENNDEVOURS was a media sponsor of the week-long dining event and most of the feedback I received was good — almost all of it actually.
Then, I got this email late last week from a reader (who also happens to operate a B&B in wine country):
"We’ve been taking advantage of LI Restaurant Week and going to as many restaurants as we can before the week is up. The best so far has been Tierra Mar at the Atlantica in West Hampton. The worst by far was Seafood Barge in Port of Egypt marina. Not only was the food dismal, but they had the nerve to tack on a surcharge to 4 out of every 6 prix fixe menu selections. When we commented on this to the waitress, she made a snide comment about our being "price conscious". I had stopped recommending Seafood Barge to our B&B guests a few months ago when most of those we referred came back disappointed. This is really quite remarkable for a restaurant that had been for many years, one of the very best on the North Fork.
Thought you’d want to know."
I’ve heard mostly great things about Seafood Barge. They seem to support the local wine industry pretty well and the chef is supposed to be great. Of course it’s seafood, so that doesn’t draw me much.
I’m of the opinion that it is far from fair to participate in a three-course, $21.95 prix fixe program only to put surcharges on most of the options. It seems to me that maybe Seafood Barge just took advantage of the LIRW promotion without offering customers what they had bargained for.
But what do you think? Am I being too stringent here?